"The Peace of Jesus!"

“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. You heard me say to you, ‘I am going away, and I will come to you.’ If you loved me, you would have rejoiced, because I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. And now I have told you before it takes place, so that when it does take place you may believe. I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming. He has no claim on me, but I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father. Rise, let us go from here.”  (John 14:27-31 ESV)

I’m sure if there is one thing that all people, regardless of country of origin, race, culture, or when they lived, would say is “We all want peace.” I mean, who doesn’t want to be around peace and quiet, who doesn’t want to relax without problems in their current circumstances? Who doesn’t want peace?

How would you define our English word “peace”? I’m sure most of us would say “the absence of…”, like the absence of war, the absence of arguments, the absence of problems, etc. I think it would be fair to say “peace”, to most of us, is the “absence of chaos”. But we miss something in the translation if we think the Greek or Hebrew words mean “absence of chaos”. So, let’s take a moment and look at these words and their meanings in the original languages.

I’m sure most of us know that the word we translate as peace from the Old Testament is “shalom” [ שָׁלוֹם 7965], and has a rich meaning of safety, prosperity, welfare, health, completeness, wholeness, and peace. In Greek, the word that we translate as peace is “eirene’” [εἰρήνη 1515], and has the rich meaning of peace and “to join together into a whole”, completeness, oneness. The Septuagint (LXX) is the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible, and the word “shalom” was translated into Greek as “eirene”, so we are talking about the same meaning from both the Old Testament (Hebrew) and the New Testament (Greek).

The verse we saw at the beginning of this devotional was spoken by Jesus to His disciples just before He was arrested, tried, and crucified. So, to think Jesus was saying “My peace I give unto you” meant the absence of chaos, doesn’t fit what was going on at the time. These disciples' lives were going to be torn apart, their world would be turned upside down, and they would not have an “absence of chaos”; in fact, all they would have was chaos coming.

So, what could Jesus have meant when He said, “Peace (eirene) I leave with you, my peace (eirene) I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” (emphasis mine). He couldn’t have been talking about the absence of chaos. But if we look further into the meaning of the Greek word “eirene,” we see that what Jesus was leaving them was His “oneness or wholeness” with God.

The “peace” that Jesus was giving them was something that no one could ever take away. It was the wholeness that only comes through faith, trust, and confidence that God the Father is willing to extend wholeness to us, because of what God the Son did for us. Peace isn’t something we can find by hiding away from the world (although sometimes that sounds very tempting). Peace isn’t something that we can manufacture on our own; peace or wholeness with God can only be found through Jesus.

Believers, when this crazy world gets our spirits out of sorts, and we start fearing for the future, when our families are a mess, when our health is out of control, remember that the “peace” Jesus gives is really wholeness, completeness, and oneness with Him and the Father. You see, when Jesus said, “My Peace”, he was referring to the “oneness” He has with the Father, the “wholeness” He and the Father share. This is the peace that Jesus was talking about. That through their faith and belief in Jesus as the only way to the Father, they could have oneness/wholeness in their lives. Friends, it’s the same with us; the world only provides chaos to the believer. Our “peace” can only come through relying on the wholeness of our Savior.

So, stop looking for the absence of chaos; you won’t find it down here, and start living in the wholeness with the Father that only Jesus provides.

"Living in Grace is not about what I can do, but about what Jesus has already done!"